There was good news in an indifferent week for James Murdoch on Wednesday when Edvald Boasson Hagen, the 24-year-old Norwegian rider with the team formally known as Sky Pro Cycling, won his second stage of the 2011 Tour de France after a hectic chase up and down a secluded hill in the Italian Alps. The victory, the result of a lone break brilliantly sustained over the last 11 kilometres of a 179km stage from Gap to Pinerolo, followed a very different success for the same rider last Thursday, when he won a group sprint finish in Lisieux.

Boasson Hagen came to attention with a string of wins in 2009, including two stages of the Giro d'Italia and half the eight stages in the Tour of Britain. At the time he was still riding alongside Mark Cavendish in the HTC team but soon signed a three-year contract with Sky. Over the past 10 days his performances have been providing rich compensation for the early loss of Bradley Wiggins.

As well as the stage win in Lisieux, 24 hours before Wednesday's victory he finished second to his compatriot Thor Hushovd after a sprint finish in Gap in which the Garmin-Cervélo rider had the tactical assistance of a team-mate, while Boasson Hagen was on his own.

"I wanted to win this stage because I came so close the day before," he said. "I wanted to get revenge. My team-mates did a good job early on to get me in the break and I felt quite strong all the way."

Team Sky, as most people call it, is a pet project of Rupert Murdoch's second son. It was formed last year in an unusual alliance between British Cycling, the sport's national governing body, and the satellite broadcaster – so unusual that Deloitte was commissioned to conduct an inquiry into possible conflicts of interest inherent in a body that receives Olympic funding from UK Sport receiving sponsorship – around £50m over five years – from a commercial entity to run a team in a professional sport.

Deloitte suggested only a few procedural amendments, enabling Dave Brailsford, British Cycling's performance director and Sky's team principal, to press ahead with his master plan. Brailsford is famous for his attention to detail, and it was significant that Boasson Hagen had ridden Wednesday's short but very difficult final climb and descent twice during a team reconnaissance trip and had subsequently examined it on film.

As each group of riders turned sharp right out of the small town of Villar-Perosa and up the Colle di Pramartino, with the temperature around 30 degrees, the attacks began to come like machine-gun fire – appropriately enough, since during the first world war a double-barrelled light machine gun manufactured in Villar‑Perosa was mounted on bicycles by the Italian army, apparently without great success.

The first to pull the trigger on Wednesday was Boasson Hagen, who spurted past Sylvain Chavanel as the road narrowed to a single track, unevenly surfaced and shrouded by overhanging trees. As the Frenchman dropped back, his compatriot Jonathan Hivert and the Dutch rider Bauke Mollema took up the hunt. They trailed by 15 seconds as the Norwegian went over the top of the twisting 6.7km climb, but on one of the early corners of the equally narrow and sinuous descent Hivert slid wide on a right-hand bend, came off and had trouble untangling his bike from a roadside bush.

A few seconds after regaining the road, he missed a left-hander and hurtled through an open gate into someone's courtyard, leaving the chase to Mollema. But once Boasson Hagen had successfully negotiated the descent, he hunched down and time-trialled over the last couple of kilometres, crossing the line 40 seconds ahead of the Rabobank man.

"I don't like to make many attacks so I made one big one and made it to the finish," he said. "The descent was quite technical but I knew it and I was alone and I didn't find it that dangerous. It was probably more technical and dangerous if you didn't know it and were in a big group."

Behind the scattered members of the stage's 13-man breakaway and a handful of pursuers, the contenders for overall victory again tussled inconclusively. Alberto Contador attacked twice on the climb and launched himself off the front on the descent, followed by Samuel Sánchez, but they were caught near the line by a group of nine including Cadel Evans, the Schleck brothers and Damiano Cunego.

Thomas Voeckler, the overall leader, had been with them at the top of the climb, but wobbled on the descent and eventually made an excursion into the same courtyard that Hivert had visited. "Mountain biking is not my speciality," he said. He finished half a minute further back, in company with Ivan Basso, but hung on to the maillot jaune for another day.

On Thursday the Tour celebrates the centenary of its first visit to the Alps with an imposing and potentially dramatic 200km stage, which starts in Pinerolo and incorporates two hors-catégorie climbs, the 2,744m Col d'Agnel and 2,360m Col d'Izoard, before finishing at the top of the 2,645m Galibier. If that does not provoke one of the contenders for Voeckler's jersey into a feat of heroism, nothing will.

James Murdoch, by the way, has yet to repeat last year's flying visit to the Tour. Must be a busy man.